The business community in the town of Yarmouth is going online.
Web.com, a provider of Internet services and online marketing solutions for small businesses, has announced that it is in the process of developing websites for all businesses in the town of Yarmouth with the goal of making Yarmouth the first community in North America that is entirely online.
"From the very beginning, Web.com has been a tremendous community partner with the Town of Yarmouth. Its pledge to see 100 percent of Yarmouth businesses online shows its deep commitment to the Yarmouth and its residents," said Yarmouth Mayor Pam Mood. "With local businesses and residents on board, this initiative provides economic opportunities for all involved. We certainly share in the excitement of this project and extend a heartfelt thank you to the Web.com team for believing in our community."
The town’s boundaries were used as the starting point for this initiative. To date, approximately 75 percent of businesses are now online as the result of this initiative, which had first been shared during Yarmouth’s All Hands on Decks follow-up meeting in March. At that time it was stated there were around 489 businesses, although since them some have closed and others have opened. Karen Churchill, Web.com director of operations in Yarmouth, had said in March that about half of the businesses had no online presence.
Volunteering their time, Yarmouth-based Web.com staff – previously known as Register.com – first identified all of the businesses in the town.
“What we did was we drove the boundaries of the town of Yarmouth and wrote down the names of any business that we saw a sign on a house or a building,” said Churchill, explaining they then launched a calling campaign to contact the businesses for whom they couldn’t find an online presence and offered to make a website for them.
Web.com employees have provided each local business owner with a relevant domain name and built their new websites. Additionally, Web.com will create an online directory of all Yarmouth businesses to encourage residents to shop locally and to allow Yarmouth businesses to tap into global markets, all of which strengthens the local economy.
“Web.com has a long-term commitment to give back to the communities we serve and Web.com wants to help all small businesses succeed online,” said David L. Brown, chairman and CEO of Web.com. “Every day, Web.com works with millions of small business owners to address the challenges of building and maintaining an effective web presence which will enable their businesses to grow.”
Local businesses say this initiative will benefit the community.
“You’d be in a vacuum if you weren’t on the Web,” said Esther Dares, Harbour’s Edge Bed & Breakfast. “Being accessible online and allowing clients to see our accommodations helps to build a comfort level. I find it goes a long way to create an expectation for service, and we want people to feel comfortable committing to a reservation based on our online presence.”
“Before, we had a basic website that didn’t generate much online traffic,” said Elliott Fevens, president of Yarmouth Links Golf Club. “Web.com gave Yarmouth Links a fresh online look and we’ve been able to successfully build upon it with Web.com’s help. We’ve seen our online traffic double and the community is much more aware of our presence now.”
Web.com Group, Inc. provides a full range of Internet services to small businesses to help them compete and succeed online. Web.com meets the needs of small businesses anywhere along their lifecycle with affordable, subscription-based solutions including domains, hosting, website design and management, search engine optimization, online marketing campaigns, local sales leads, social media, mobile products and eCommerce solutions. For more information, visit www.web.com; follow Web.com on Twitter @webdotcom or on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/web.com. For additional online marketing resources and small business networking, visit forum.web.com.
